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I have heard both sides of the debate over bringing a NBA team to Louisville. I understand both sides and I have my opinion. My opinion no longer matters because the rumors are that expansion could be coming very soon, “I’ve heard that once the CBA is finished, the expansion bidding could be announced as soon as December or as late as the All-Star Game in February.”-Kevin Nesgoda. Seattle is rumored to be the most likely to get a franchise but Louisville is in the running and this article by Matt Moore of cbssports.com lays out the pros and cons of each city with a chance of landing an expansion team… Read the rest of this entry →

“The Rockets reached agreement with second-round pick Chinanu Onuaku on a three-year, fully guaranteed deal, using their remaining cap space to come to terms on the kind of contract they hope will provide time to develop the 19-year-old center.” – Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle

It was a nice night for former Cardinals in the NBA Summer League on Sunday, and a former Notre Dame player continued the tradition of getting dunked on by a Louisville player. Montrezl Harrell made his summer league debut, Terry Rozier led the Celtics in scoring, and Wayne Blackshear made the most of his minutes last night. Here is how they did…

Russ Smith continued his great summer with the Grizzlies on Friday afternoon in the Championship of the Orlando NBA Summer League. Not only did he have 15 points, 9 assists, and 3 steals, but he hit the game winning shot in double-overtime to win the league. It was his second game-winner this week.

Check out these videos of Russ in action. He hits a crazy three pointer, the game winner, and gets interviewed after the game.

Yesterday was a pretty eventful day for former Louisville Cardinals in the NBA Summer League. Russ Smith hit a game winning shot against Peyton Siva’s team, and Terry Rozier led the Celtics in scoring. Not a bad day. Here are the stats…

In NBA Summer League action on Tuesday afternoon, Russ Smith faced off against Peyton Siva. Russ and the Grizzlies got the better end of the matchup, as Russ went off for 20 points, including the game winning shot in sudden death.

Russ finished with 20 points on 9-12 shooting and was 2-3 from the three point line. He also had 3 assists, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and 1 turnover.

This is a pretty cool graphic that shows all 22 first round NBA draft picks in UofL history. We have only had one #1 pick and that was Pervis Ellison back in 1989. Three times, we have had two first round picks. 2009 was Terrence Williams and Earl Clark. 1994 was Clifford Rozier and Greg Minor. 1989 was Pervis Ellison and Kenny Payne. A lot of history and great players all on one picture here. As always, Go Cards!

The NBA Draft Combine was held over the last few days in Chicago, and Terry Rozier seems to have helped himself a lot with his draft stock. Sam Vecenie of CBSSports.com made a list of three players that helped themselves and three people that hurt themselves.

I don’t think he put it in any particular order, but he did list Terry Rozier first. Here is what he had to say.

Former Louisville Cardinal Montrezl Harrell met with some media members on Friday in Chicago while at the NBA Draft Combine. Jeff Greer of the Courier-Journal has transcribed his interview, and you can check that out right here. This is about half of it, there will be a link at the bottom to read the rest of it.

How’s the draft process going so far?

It’s been a pretty smooth process. It’s definitely been a tough grind, switching from the college game to getting more prepared for the NBA, but it’s definitely been a smooth process.

What part of your game translates the easiest to the NBA?

Rebounding, playing with high energy and a high motor all the time during the game. I definitely feel like I can carry that over to the NBA and be able to play like that for the full length of the game.

Terry Rozier is trying to improve his draft stock at the NBA Combine. During Thursday’s scrimmage, he had 13 points on 5-9 shooting, two assists, two steals, and one turnover. He met with the media afterwards for a little Q&A session. Jeff Greer of the Courier-Journal was there and here is how it went.

How do you feel about your workout today?

It was pretty good. I just wanted to start the day off … Got some shots up in front a lot of GMs and coaches. It felt good to get my motor back on and start it back up. I had fun.

It appears that Russ Smith may be making his way out of New Orleans and to…Memphis. Talk about a change in cities! Sorry Russ.

This is still in the works and is being reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. If you know much about Adrian, you know that he probably knows what you had for breakfast before you even wake up. He is THAT good on his information.

The NBA Summer League’s are always exciting because you have guys out there fighting for a job. If you see a game, you may see about 10-20 people watching on the sidelines, so it may not look like the games mean much. But those guys are out there battling for a roster spot. That will be the case this summer for former Louisville Cardinal Peyton Siva with the Detroit Pistons. Although he played well coming down the stretch last season in Detroit, his contract is not guaranteed, so he is essentially playing to make the team.

In this article by detroitbadboys.com, they write that Siva should have plenty of opportunity to make his case, as Spencer Dinwiddie ruled out for the summer. Dinwiddie was drafted by the Pistons this year in the 2nd round, and he is a 6’6 point guard that played at Colorado. This is from the article:

Sounds like ESPN Draft Insider is finding out what we all already knew……Russ Smith is good. Last year Russ was a possible late first rounder but chose to come back and work on the things the NBA told him he needed to improve on. Not only did Russ work on those things but he got noticeably better at EVERY thing, yet somehow began slipping down the draft boards as the season went on. Now at the pre draft workouts coaches and GM’s are getting an up close look at just how quick Russ really is and apparently they like what they see. Chad Ford wrote the following in his recent “Draft Rumors”:

Louisville’s Russ Smith is riding on a high since being one of the lone standouts in a two-day league-wide workout the NBA scheduled in L.A. right after the draft lottery.

He’s since gone on to work out with the Celtics, Suns, Thunder and Heat and seems to be moving into the discussion as a possible late first-round pick.

“Everyone knows Russ is one of the quickest players in this draft and he can obviously put the ball in the basket,” one GM said. “But I think he’s been showing off that when he wants to be, he can be a guy who can really play point guard. He seems like a perfect change-of-pace guard who can score and speed

Where Russ will end up is unknown but I, like many, have no doubt Russ Smith will be a name we will hear much more about in the coming years.

This morning on the Drew Deener show (ESPN 680) former Louisville assistant coach Mark Lieberman said Kyle Kuric would suit up with the LA Clippers for this years NBA Summer League. The Clippers will participate in the Las Vegas league (July 11-July 21) along with 23 other teams and there will be no shortage of talent.

From NBA.com:

“This summer, 10 of the 12 teams that own Lottery picks in the 2014 NBA Draft presented by State Farm will take the court at Samsung NBA Summer League, including the Cleveland Cavaliers, Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers, who are slated to make the top three picks in this year’s Draft.

Each team is expected to choose from an impressive crop of prospects that includes Australia’s Dante Exum, Duke’s Jabari Parker, Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins from Kansas, and Kentucky’s Julius Randle.”

The NBA announced on Monday that 76ers point guard Michael Carter-Williams won the Rookie of the Year award. He averaged 16.7 points per game and won the award easily with 104 first place votes (out of 124). The bigger news here of course, is that Gorgui Dieng finished 6th in the voting! Considering he really didn’t start to get meaningful minutes until the middle of March, that is pretty incredible.

Total points for votes in ( )

1. Michael Carter-Williams – Phi (569)

2. Victor Oladipo – Orl (364)

3. Trey Burke – Utah (96)

4. Mason Plumlee – Bkn (58)

5. Tim Hardaway Jr. – NY (23)

6. Gorgui Dieng – Min (3)

7. Steven Adams – OKC (1)

8. Giannis Antetokounmpo – Mil (1)

9. Nick Calathes – Mem (1)

He finished the season averaging 4.8 points and 5 rebounds per game, but his impact was much bigger than that when he finally started to play consistently. For the month of March, he averaged 8.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. That includes 6 games where he played a total of 14 minutes, which couldn’t help those averages at all. March also saw Gorgui have a game with 22 points and 21 rebounds against the Rockets, as well as a game with 15 points and 15 rebounds against the Hawks.